Device category in 3GPP communications

ABSTRACT

A user equipment (UE) device may communicate according to a new device category satisfying specified QoS (quality of service) requirements while also satisfying specified link budget requirements, and/or additional optimization requirements. The UE device may communicate with a cellular base station according to a first mode of operation associated with the new device category, and may switch to communicating with the cellular base station according to a second mode of operation associated with a second (pre-existing) device category in response to the link budget requirements exceeding a specified value and the quality of service requirements not being sensitive. The UE device may also switch to communicating with the cellular base station according to a third mode of operation associated with a third (pre-existing) device type in response to the link budget requirement not exceeding the specified value, or the QoS requirements being sensitive and a downlink throughput requirement exceeding a specified throughput value.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/387,904 titled “New Device Category in 3GPP Communications”, filed onDec. 22, 2016, which itself claims benefit of priority of U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/274,353 titled “New DeviceCategory in 3GPP Communications”, filed on Jan. 3, 2016, both of whichare hereby incorporated by reference as though fully and completely setforth herein.

The claims in the instant application are different than those of theparent application or other related applications. The Applicanttherefore rescinds any disclaimer of claim scope made in the parentapplication or any predecessor application in relation to the instantapplication. The Examiner is therefore advised that any such previousdisclaimer and the cited references that it was made to avoid, may needto be revisited. Further, any disclaimer made in the instant applicationshould not be read into or against the parent application or otherrelated applications.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present application relates to wireless communications, and moreparticularly to a new category of devices in 3GPP wirelesscommunications.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Wireless communication systems are rapidly growing in usage. In recentyears, wireless devices such as smart phones and tablet computers havebecome increasingly sophisticated. In addition to supporting telephonecalls, many mobile devices (i.e., user equipment devices or UEs) nowprovide access to the internet, email, text messaging, and navigationusing the global positioning system (GPS), and are capable of operatingsophisticated applications that utilize these functionalities.Additionally, there exist numerous different wireless communicationtechnologies and standards. Some examples of wireless communicationstandards include GSM, UMTS (WCDMA, TDS-CDMA), LTE, LTE Advanced(LTE-A), HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), IEEE802.11 (WLAN or Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), BLUETOOTH™, etc.

Various ones of the wireless communications standards, such as LTE,utilize packet switched networks. The LTE specification defines a numberof User Equipment (UE) categories, where each LTE category defines theoverall performance and the capabilities of a UE. These LTE categoriesdefine the standards to which a particular handset, dongle or otherequipment will operate in the communication system. The LTE categoriesor UE classes are used to ensure that the base station (eNodeB or eNB)can communicate correctly with the user equipment. The UE relays the LTEUE category information to the base station, and thus the base stationis able to determine the performance characteristics of the UE andcommunicate with the UE accordingly. This enables the eNB to communicateusing capabilities that it knows the UE possesses. The LTE UE categoryinformation is therefore of great importance. While users may not beparticularly aware of the category of their UE, the performance of theUE matches the UE's category and allows the eNB to communicateeffectively with all the UEs that are connected to it. However, the eNBwill be less likely to communicate beyond the performance of the UEcorresponding to the category of the UE.

Accordingly, improvements in the field are desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments are presented herein of, inter alia, methods for wirelesscommunication devices communicating, e.g. with cellular base stations,according to a new device category, and of devices that implement themethods. Embodiments are further presented herein for wirelesscommunication systems containing user equipment (UE) devices and basestations communicating with each other within the wireless communicationsystems.

In various embodiments, a UE device may communicate according to a newdevice category satisfying specified QoS requirements while alsosatisfying specified link budget requirements, and, in some embodiments,additional optimization requirements. The UE device may communicate witha cellular base station according to the new device category, and mayswitch to communicating with the cellular base station in a way that theUE uses physical channels and/or procedures that are specific to one ormore other, different device categories. For example, the UE device mayswitch to using physical channels and/or procedures associated with asecond (pre-existing) device category if the link budget requirementsexceed a specified value and the QoS requirements are not sensitive,while communicating with the cellular base station. The UE device mayalso switch to using physical channels and/or procedures associated witha third (pre-existing) device type if either the link budget requirementdoes not exceed the specified value, or the QoS requirements aresensitive and a downlink throughput requirement exceeds a specifiedthroughput value, while communicating with the cellular base station.

Note that the techniques described herein may be implemented in and/orused with a number of different types of devices, including but notlimited to, base stations, access points, cellular phones, portablemedia players, tablet computers, wearable devices, and various othercomputing devices.

This Summary is intended to provide a brief overview of some of thesubject matter described in this document. Accordingly, it will beappreciated that the above-described features are merely examples andshould not be construed to narrow the scope or spirit of the subjectmatter described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, andadvantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparentfrom the following Detailed Description, Figures, and Claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary base station in communication with anexemplary wireless user equipment (UE) device, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a UE, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a base station,according to some embodiments;

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary flow diagram illustrating communicationbetween a UE device and a base station, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 6 shows a table of select device category definitions that includea newly proposed category A (Cat-A), according to some embodiments;

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary table illustrating uplink requirements forsome wireless communications according to some embodiments;

FIG. 8 illustrates the uplink narrow bandwidth operation of a wirelesscommunication device, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 9 illustrates the signal generation on the PUSCH during uplinknarrow bandwidth operation of a wireless communication device, accordingto some embodiments;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a tuning gap according to someembodiments;

FIG. 11 shows a partial timing diagram illustrating signaling for a newcategory (Cat-A) device, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 12 shows a flow diagram illustrating signaling for a new category(Cat-A) device, according to some embodiments; and

FIG. 13 shows an exemplary frequency spectrum diagram illustrating thedownlink mode of operation of a new category (Cat-A) device, accordingto some embodiments.

While features described herein are susceptible to various modificationsand alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way ofexample in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should beunderstood, however, that the drawings and detailed description theretoare not intended to be limiting to the particular form disclosed, but onthe contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalentsand alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the subjectmatter as defined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Acronyms

Various acronyms are used throughout the present application.Definitions of the most prominently used acronyms that may appearthroughout the present application are provided below:

-   -   UE: User Equipment    -   RF: Radio Frequency    -   BS: Base Station    -   DL: Downlink (from BS to UE)    -   UL: Uplink (from UE to BS)    -   FDD: Frequency Division Duplexing    -   TDD: Time Division Duplexing    -   GSM: Global System for Mobile Communication    -   LTE: Long Term Evolution    -   TX: Transmission/Transmit    -   RX: Reception/Receive    -   UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunication System    -   LAN: Local Area Network    -   WLAN: Wireless LAN    -   AP: Access Point    -   APR: Applications Processor    -   APN: Access Point Name    -   GPRS: General Packet Radio Service    -   GTP: GPRS Tunneling Protocol    -   PDN: Packet Data Network    -   PGW: PDN Gateway    -   SGW: Serving Gateway    -   RAT: Radio Access Technology    -   Wi-Fi: Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) RAT based on the        Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) 802.11        standards    -   PDCP: Packet Data Convergence Protocol    -   BSR: Buffer Size Report    -   CMR: Change Mode Request    -   TBS: Transport Block Size    -   ROHC: Robust Header Compression    -   SID: System Identification Number    -   PDU: Protocol Data Unit    -   PT: Payload Type    -   FT: Frame Type    -   AMR-WB: Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband    -   RTP: Real-time Transport Protocol    -   IR: Initialization and Refresh state    -   FO: First-Order state    -   DYN: Dynamic

TERMS

The following is a glossary of terms that may appear in the presentapplication:

Memory Medium—Any of various types of memory devices or storage devices.The term “memory medium” is intended to include an installation medium,e.g., a CD-ROM, floppy disks 104, or tape device; a computer systemmemory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM,Rambus RAM, etc.; a non-volatile memory such as a Flash, magnetic media,e.g., a hard drive, or optical storage; registers, or other similartypes of memory elements, etc. The memory medium may comprise othertypes of memory as well or combinations thereof. In addition, the memorymedium may be located in a first computer system in which the programsare executed, or may be located in a second different computer systemwhich connects to the first computer system over a network, such as theInternet. In the latter instance, the second computer system may provideprogram instructions to the first computer system for execution. Theterm “memory medium” may include two or more memory mediums which mayreside in different locations, e.g., in different computer systems thatare connected over a network.

Carrier Medium—a memory medium as described above, as well as a physicaltransmission medium, such as a bus, network, and/or other physicaltransmission medium that conveys signals such as electrical,electromagnetic, or digital signals.

Computer System (or Computer)—any of various types of computing orprocessing systems, including a personal computer system (PC), mainframecomputer system, workstation, network appliance, Internet appliance,personal digital assistant (PDA), television system, grid computingsystem, or other device or combinations of devices. In general, the term“computer system” may be broadly defined to encompass any device (orcombination of devices) having at least one processor that executesinstructions from a memory medium.

User Equipment (UE) (or “UE Device”)—any of various types of computersystems devices which are mobile or portable and which performs wirelesscommunications. Also referred to as wireless communication devices.Examples of UE devices include mobile telephones or smart phones (e.g.,iPhone™, Android™-based phones) and tablet computers such as iPad™,Samsung Galaxy™, etc., portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS™,PlayStation Portable™, Gameboy Advance™, iPod™), laptops, wearabledevices (e.g. Apple Watch™, Google Glass™) PDAs, portable Internetdevices, music players, data storage devices, or other handheld devices,etc. Various other types of devices would fall into this category ifthey include Wi-Fi or both cellular and Wi-Fi communication capabilitiesand/or other wireless communication capabilities, for example overshort-range radio access technologies (SRATs) such as BLUETOOTH™, etc.In general, the term “UE” or “UE device” may be broadly defined toencompass any electronic, computing, and/or telecommunications device(or combination of devices) which is easily transported by a user andcapable of wireless communication.

Base Station (BS)—The term “Base Station” has the full breadth of itsordinary meaning, and at least includes a wireless communication stationinstalled at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of awireless telephone system or radio system.

Processing Element—refers to various elements or combinations ofelements that are capable of performing a function in a device, e.g. ina user equipment device or in a cellular network device. Processingelements may include, for example: processors and associated memory,portions or circuits of individual processor cores, entire processorcores, processor arrays, circuits such as an ASIC (Application SpecificIntegrated Circuit), programmable hardware elements such as a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA), as well any of various combinations ofthe above.

Wireless Device (or wireless communication device)—any of various typesof computer systems devices which performs wireless communications usingWLAN communications, SRAT communications, Wi-Fi communications and thelike. As used herein, the term “wireless device” may refer to a UEdevice, as defined above, or to a stationary device, such as astationary wireless client or a wireless base station. For example awireless device may be any type of wireless station of an 802.11 system,such as an access point (AP) or a client station (UE), or any type ofwireless station of a cellular communication system communicatingaccording to a cellular radio access technology (e.g. LTE, CDMA, GSM),such as a base station or a cellular telephone, for example.

Wi-Fi—The term “Wi-Fi” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning, andat least includes a wireless communication network or RAT that isserviced by wireless LAN (WLAN) access points and which providesconnectivity through these access points to the Internet. Most modernWi-Fi networks (or WLAN networks) are based on IEEE 802.11 standards andare marketed under the name “Wi-Fi”. A Wi-Fi (WLAN) network is differentfrom a cellular network.

BLUETOOTH™—The term “BLUETOOTH™” has the full breadth of its ordinarymeaning, and at least includes any of the various implementations of theBluetooth standard, including Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE) and BluetoothLow Energy for Audio (BTLEA), including future implementations of theBluetooth standard, among others.

Personal Area Network—The term “Personal Area Network” has the fullbreadth of its ordinary meaning, and at least includes any of varioustypes of computer networks used for data transmission among devices suchas computers, phones, tablets and input/output devices. Bluetooth is oneexample of a personal area network. A PAN is an example of a short rangewireless communication technology.

Automatically—refers to an action or operation performed by a computersystem (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or device (e.g.,circuitry, programmable hardware elements, ASICs, etc.), without userinput directly specifying or performing the action or operation. Thusthe term “automatically” is in contrast to an operation being manuallyperformed or specified by the user, where the user provides input todirectly perform the operation. An automatic procedure may be initiatedby input provided by the user, but the subsequent actions that areperformed “automatically” are not specified by the user, i.e., are notperformed “manually”, where the user specifies each action to perform.For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting eachfield and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typinginformation, selecting check boxes, radio selections, etc.) is fillingout the form manually, even though the computer system must update theform in response to the user actions. The form may be automaticallyfilled out by the computer system where the computer system (e.g.,software executing on the computer system) analyzes the fields of theform and fills in the form without any user input specifying the answersto the fields. As indicated above, the user may invoke the automaticfilling of the form, but is not involved in the actual filling of theform (e.g., the user is not manually specifying answers to fields butrather they are being automatically completed). The presentspecification provides various examples of operations beingautomatically performed in response to actions the user has taken.

Station (STA)—The term “station” herein refers to any device that hasthe capability of communicating wirelessly, e.g. by using the 802.11protocol. A station may be a laptop, a desktop PC, PDA, access point orWi-Fi phone or any type of device similar to a UE. An STA may be fixed,mobile, portable or wearable. Generally in wireless networkingterminology, a station (STA) broadly encompasses any device withwireless communication capabilities, and the terms station (STA),wireless client (UE) and node (BS) are therefore often usedinterchangeably.

Configured to—Various components may be described as “configured to”perform a task or tasks. In such contexts, “configured to” is a broadrecitation generally meaning “having structure that” performs the taskor tasks during operation. As such, the component can be configured toperform the task even when the component is not currently performingthat task (e.g., a set of electrical conductors may be configured toelectrically connect a module to another module, even when the twomodules are not connected). In some contexts, “configured to” may be abroad recitation of structure generally meaning “having circuitry that”performs the task or tasks during operation. As such, the component canbe configured to perform the task even when the component is notcurrently on. In general, the circuitry that forms the structurecorresponding to “configured to” may include hardware circuits.

Various components may be described as performing a task or tasks, forconvenience in the description. Such descriptions should be interpretedas including the phrase “configured to.” Reciting a component that isconfigured to perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not toinvoke 35 U.S.C. § 112, paragraph six, interpretation for thatcomponent.

FIGS. 1 and 2—Exemplary Communication System

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem, according to some embodiments. It is noted that the system ofFIG. 1 is merely one example of a possible system, and embodiments maybe implemented in any of various systems, as desired.

As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a basestation 102 which communicates over a transmission medium with one ormore user devices 106-1 through 106-N. Each of the user devices may bereferred to herein as a “user equipment” (UE) or UE device. Thus, theuser devices 106 are referred to as UEs or UE devices. Various ones ofthe UE devices may operate according to a new category [definition] asdetailed herein.

The base station 102 may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or cellsite, and may include hardware that enables wireless communication withthe UEs 106A through 106N. The base station 102 may also be equipped tocommunicate with a network 100 (e.g., a core network of a cellularservice provider, a telecommunication network such as a public switchedtelephone network (PSTN), and/or the Internet, among variouspossibilities). Thus, the base station 102 may facilitate communicationbetween the user devices and/or between the user devices and the network100. The communication area (or coverage area) of the base station maybe referred to as a “cell.” As also used herein, from the perspective ofUEs, a base station may sometimes be considered as representing thenetwork insofar as uplink and downlink communications of the UE areconcerned. Thus, a UE communicating with one or more base stations inthe network may also be interpreted as the UE communicating with thenetwork.

The base station 102 and the user devices may be configured tocommunicate over the transmission medium using any of various radioaccess technologies (RATs), also referred to as wireless communicationtechnologies, or telecommunication standards, such as GSM, UMTS (WCDMA),LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD,eHRPD), Wi-Fi, WiMAX etc. In some embodiments, the base station 102communicates with at least one UE using improved UL (Uplink) and DL(Downlink) decoupling, preferably through LTE or a similar RAT standard.

UE 106 may be capable of communicating using multiple wirelesscommunication standards. For example, a UE 106 might be configured tocommunicate using either or both of a 3GPP cellular communicationstandard (such as LTE) or a 3GPP2 cellular communication standard (suchas a cellular communication standard in the CDMA2000 family of cellularcommunication standards). In some embodiments, the UE 106 may beconfigured to communicate with base station 102 at least according to anew and improved category designation/definition of UE 106 as describedherein. Base station 102 and other similar base stations operatingaccording to the same or a different cellular communication standard maythus be provided as one or more networks of cells, which may providecontinuous or nearly continuous overlapping service to UE 106 andsimilar devices over a wide geographic area via one or more cellularcommunication standards.

The UE 106 might also or alternatively be configured to communicateusing WLAN, BLUETOOTH™, one or more global navigational satellitesystems (GNSS, e.g., GPS or GLONASS), one and/or more mobile televisionbroadcasting standards (e.g., ATSC-M/H or DVB-H), etc. Othercombinations of wireless communication standards (including more thantwo wireless communication standards) are also possible.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary user equipment 106 (e.g., one of thedevices 106-1 through 106-N) in communication with the base station 102,according to some embodiments. The UE 106 may be a device with wirelessnetwork connectivity such as a mobile phone, a hand-held device, acomputer or a tablet, or virtually any type of wireless device. The UE106 may include a processor that is configured to execute programinstructions stored in memory. The UE 106 may perform any of the methodembodiments described herein by executing such stored instructions.Alternatively, or in addition, the UE 106 may include a programmablehardware element such as an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) that isconfigured to perform any of the method embodiments described herein, orany portion of any of the method embodiments described herein. The UE106 may be configured to communicate using any of multiple wirelesscommunication protocols. For example, the UE 106 may be configured tocommunicate using two or more of CDMA2000, LTE, LTE-A, WLAN, or GNSS.Other combinations of wireless communication standards are alsopossible.

The UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using oneor more wireless communication protocols according to one or more RATstandards. In some embodiments, the UE 106 may share one or more partsof a receive chain and/or transmit chain between multiple wirelesscommunication standards. The shared radio may include a single antenna,or may include multiple antennas (e.g., for MIMO) for performingwireless communications. Alternatively, the UE 106 may include separatetransmit and/or receive chains (e.g., including separate antennas andother radio components) for each wireless communication protocol withwhich it is configured to communicate. As another alternative, the UE106 may include one or more radios which are shared between multiplewireless communication protocols, and one or more radios which are usedexclusively by a single wireless communication protocol. For example,the UE 106 may include a shared radio for communicating using either ofLTE or CDMA2000 1×RTT, and separate radios for communicating using eachof Wi-Fi and BLUETOOTH™. Other configurations are also possible.

FIG. 3—Block Diagram of an Exemplary UE

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary UE 106, according tosome embodiments. As shown, the UE 106 may include a system on chip(SOC) 300, which may include portions for various purposes. For example,as shown, the SOC 300 may include processor(s) 302 which may executeprogram instructions for the UE 106 and display circuitry 304 which mayperform graphics processing and provide display signals to the display360. The processor(s) 302 may also be coupled to memory management unit(MMU) 340, which may be configured to receive addresses from theprocessor(s) 302 and translate those addresses to locations in memory(e.g., memory 306, read only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310)and/or to other circuits or devices, such as the display circuitry 304,radio 330, connector I/F 320, and/or display 360. The MMU 340 may beconfigured to perform memory protection and page table translation orset up. In some embodiments, the MMU 340 may be included as a portion ofthe processor(s) 302.

As shown, the SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of the UE106. For example, the UE 106 may include various types of memory (e.g.,including NAND flash 310), a connector interface 320 (e.g., for couplingto the computer system), the display 360, and wireless communicationcircuitry (e.g., for LTE, LTE-A, CDMA2000, BLUETOOTH™, Wi-Fi, GPS,etc.). The UE device 106 may include at least one antenna (e.g. 335 a),and possibly multiple antennas (e.g. illustrated by antennas 335 a and335 b), for performing wireless communication with base stations and/orother devices. Antennas 335 a and 335 b are shown by way of example, andUE device 106 may include more antennas. Overall, the one or moreantennas are collectively referred to as antenna 335. For example, theUE device 106 may use antenna 335 to perform the wireless communicationwith the aid of radio circuitry 330. As noted above, the UE may beconfigured to communicate wirelessly using multiple wirelesscommunication standards in some embodiments.

As described further subsequently herein, the UE 106 (and/or basestation 102) may include hardware and software components forimplementing methods for UE 106 [and base station 102] communicating[with each other] at least according to a new and improved categorydesignation of UE 106. The processor(s) 302 of the UE device 106 may beconfigured to implement part or all of the methods described herein,e.g., by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g.,a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In other embodiments,processor(s) 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element,such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or as an ASIC(Application Specific Integrated Circuit). Furthermore, processor(s) 302may be coupled to and/or may interoperate with other components as shownin FIG. 3, to implement communications by UE 106 that incorporatescommunications corresponding to a new, improved category designation ofUE 106 according to various embodiments disclosed herein. Specifically,processor(s) 302 may be coupled to and/or may interoperate with othercomponents as shown in FIG. 3 to facilitate UE 106 communicating in anadaptive manner that seeks to optimize power consumption and performanceduring wireless communications of UE 106. Processor(s) 302 may alsoimplement various other applications and/or end-user applicationsrunning on UE 106.

In some embodiments, radio 330 may include separate controllersdedicated to controlling communications for various respective RATstandards. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, radio 330 may include a WiFi controller 350, a cellular controller (e.g. LTE controller) 352, andBLUETOOTH™ controller 354, and in at least some embodiments, one or moreor all of these controllers may be implemented as respective integratedcircuits (ICs or chips, for short) in communication with each other andwith SOC 300 (and more specifically with processor(s) 302) as will befurther described below. For example, Wi Fi controller 350 maycommunicate with cellular controller 352 over a cell-ISM link or WCIinterface, and/or BLUETOOTH™ controller 354 may communicate withcellular controller 352 over a cell-ISM link, etc. While three separatecontrollers are illustrated within radio 330, other embodiments havefewer or more similar controllers for various different RATs that may beimplemented in UE device 106.

FIG. 4—Block Diagram of an Exemplary Base Station

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary base station 102,according to some embodiments. It is noted that the base station of FIG.4 is merely one example of a possible base station. As shown, the basestation 102 may include processor(s) 404 which may execute programinstructions for the base station 102. The processor(s) 404 may also becoupled to memory management unit (MMU) 440, which may be configured toreceive addresses from the processor(s) 404 and translate thoseaddresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read only memory(ROM) 450) or to other circuits or devices.

The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. Thenetwork port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network andprovide a plurality of devices, such as UE devices 106, access to thetelephone network as described above in FIGS. 1 and 2. The network port470 (or an additional network port) may also or alternatively beconfigured to couple to a cellular network, e.g., a core network of acellular service provider. The core network may provide mobility relatedservices and/or other services to a plurality of devices, such as UEdevices 106. In some cases, the network port 470 may couple to atelephone network via the core network, and/or the core network mayprovide a telephone network (e.g., among other UE devices serviced bythe cellular service provider).

The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434, and possiblymultiple antennas. The at least one antenna 434 may be configured tooperate as a wireless transceiver and may be further configured tocommunicate with UE devices 106 via radio 430. The antenna 434communicates with the radio 430 via communication chain 432.Communication chain 432 may be a receive chain, a transmit chain orboth. The radio 430 may be designed to communicate via various wirelesstelecommunication standards, including, but not limited to, LTE, LTE-AWCDMA, CDMA2000, etc. The processor 404 of the base station 102 may beconfigured to implement part or all of the methods described herein forbase station 102 to communicate with a UE device belonging to a newcategory of devices capable of adaptively improving power consumption,link budget management, and performance during wireless communications,e.g., by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g.,a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively, theprocessor 404 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, suchas an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or as an ASIC (ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit), or a combination thereof. In the case ofcertain RATs, for example Wi-Fi, base station 102 may be designed as anaccess point (AP), in which case network port 470 may be implemented toprovide access to a wide area network and/or local area network (s),e.g. it may include at least one Ethernet port, and radio 430 may bedesigned to communicate according to the Wi-Fi standard. Base station102 may operate according to the various methods as disclosed herein forcommunicating with mobile devices of a wider range of device categories.

Device Categories

There are many different device category definitions for LTE devices.For example, categories 1-8 are designated for smartphones, and mostphones operate according to one of categories 3 to 8. In other words,smartphones typically operate as a device belonging to one of categories3-8. Category M (Cat-M) is typically used for MTC (Machine TypeCommunications) devices such as soda machines, smart meters, etc. Insome embodiments, a new category A (Cat-A) may be devised and tailoredto a specific group of devices, for example to wearable devices such assmart watches or smart glasses. In terms of functionality, wearabledevices represent a compromise between link budget and quality ofservice (QoS). Thus, when considering current existing categories, itmay be advantageous to retain the link budget improvement associatedwith Cat-M because of the form factor, while also retaining the QoS ofsmart phone categories. Typically, if a Cat-M device has to report itselectricity usage to the network, there is no need for the device totransmit such a report during peak wireless network traffic hours suchas between 9 AM and noon. Instead, the device may transmit the reportduring off-peak hours, e.g. 3 AM when there is little or no networktraffic. It may be considered difficult for the network to access thedevice in the middle of the day. Moreover, Cat-M does not necessarilysupport real time applications. It would therefore be desirable todevise a new category satisfying QoS requirements along with an improvedlink budget (i.e. also satisfying certain link budget requirements), andpotentially implementing additional desired optimizations.

FIG. 6 shows a table of select device category definitions that includea newly proposed category A (Cat-A), according to some embodiments. Eachcolumn (of columns 2-5) corresponds to a respective device category andincludes parameter requirements/designations associated with eachrespective feature/designation represented in a corresponding row ofcolumn 1 (Features). A new category (Cat-A) in the fifth column may bedefined—according to some embodiments—by the parameterrequirements/designations that appear in column 5. That is, theparameter requirements/designations in the Cat-A column representparameter requirements/designations associated with (or correspondingto) a newly defined category. In some embodiments, the respectivecorresponding parameter requirements of Cat-A may incorporate (at leastin part) the maximum throughput requirements of CAT “1”, the number oftransmit antennas required in CAT “0” and CAT “M”, the duplexerrequirement of CAT “1”, the power amplifier requirements of CAT “1” andCAT “0”, and the modulation requirements of CAT “M”. The table alsohighlights various different characteristics as desirable, unsuitable orsuitable.

Cat-A Requirements for UL

The bandwidth (BW) requirement for UL may be based on the link budgetlimitation of the UE, whereby the potential gain of a large BW may belimited. The PUSCH may be limited to a specified (e.g. small) number ofresource blocks (RBs), which may be 6 to 15/25 RBs in some embodiments.In order to achieve a specified (e.g. peak) throughput, which may be 5Mbps (in full duplex mode) in some embodiments, at least a specified BW(e.g. at least 3 MHz) may be required. The modulationdesignations/schemes may include QPSK, 16QAM (for peak throughputdefinition). FIG. 7 shows an exemplary table illustrating ULdesignations according to some embodiments. The numbers in the top rowindicate the number of physical resource blocks, while the first columnin each table indicates the transport block size. For example, as shownin FIG. 7, no more than 15 RBs are to be used when operating at 3 MHz.

The UL physical channels (PHY) may be characterized as follows. ThePUCCH may be narrowband (e.g. 1 RB), located around the extreme end ofthe system bandwidth in the frequency domain. The PUSCH may benarrowband/wideband allocated by a E/M/PDCCH grant (e.g. an EPDCCH grantor M-PDCCH grant or PDCCH grant). The SRS may be narrowband andwideband. The PRACH may be narrowband, e.g. 6 RBs, based on an RRCconfiguration. FIG. 8 illustrates the overall operation of the UE in ULnarrow BW according to some embodiments. As illustrated in FIG. 8, theUE may perform tuning across two subframes, e.g. subframes 802 and 804,and/or subframes 806 and 808, respectively. FIG. 8 illustrates tuningfor PUSCH intra-subframe hopping and PUSCH inter-subframe hopping,respectively, across two subframes for each case.

FIG. 9 illustrates the signal generation on the PUSCH during UE narrowBW UL operation according to some embodiments. In the exemplaryembodiment, the baseband signal is processed in a digital Fouriertransform block (DFT 902) and the resulting output signals are providedto an inverse digital Fourier transform block (IDFT 904) operating atfrequency Fs. The processed baseband signal is then frequency shifted(Frequency Shift block, or FSB 906). Diagram 912 illustrates thefrequency spectrum of the signals entering FSB 906, and diagram 910illustrates the frequency spectrum of the signals output from FSB 906.

Referring to FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, the operation of the UE in UL narrow BWmay be partially characterized as follows. The System BW may be kept tothe network configuration (e.g. 10/20 MHz), depending on the networkdeployment. The RF may be opened for the number of RBs needed (e.g. 1 RBfor PUCCH, up to 15 RBs for PUSCH based on DCI0). The RF may be tunableto the location (in some embodiments to the exact location) of thefrequency domain allocation. For example, the RF may be tuned to thelocation of the frequency domain allocation whenever frequency hoppingis needed. The PLL may be designed to have at least a specifiedresolution such that tuning loss has negligible impact on performanceand the tuning period is shared across a specified number of subframes,e.g. the tuning period may be shared across two subframes in this case.FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a tuning gap (denoted by “G” in thefigure) according to some embodiments.

The UL narrowband “On” operation of the UE may include the followingspecifications.

-   -   The UL grant allocation for PUSCH may be restricted, i.e. the        present system BW may be retained. This may be performed through        signaling to the NW for a new category definition. Prior to        attaching to the NW and prior to the UE Identification in RRC        signaling, the UE may operate in a different category mode, e.g.        CAT-M mode. For example, in some embodiments, MSG3 (PUSCH) and        PUCCH may be using a specified frequency, such as 1.4 MHz        associated with (or corresponding to) CAT-M.    -   SRS may be disabled, or only narrowband configuration may be        allowed for SRS. Common SRS may be sent in SIB2, and UE-Specific        SRS may be sent through RRC signaling (RRC connection        reconfiguration). Accordingly, in some embodiments, the Cat-A        device may disregard the configuration relayed through SIB2 and        may instead use the configuration relayed through the RRC        signaling that supports narrowband SRS for a Cat-A device. In        some embodiments, a Cat-A device may be specified as not        supporting the wideband SRS configuration in RRC, thereby        differing from legacy UEs. In such embodiments, the eNB may not        signal a wideband SRS configuration, rather a narrowband SRS may        be implemented to support the narrowband mode of operation of        the Cat-A device during UL operations.

FIG. 11 shows a partial timing diagram illustrating signaling for aCat-A device according to some embodiments. As illustrated in FIG. 11,once initial setup through RRC signaling has been established (RRCSetup, Authentication, NAS Security), the NW (e.g. base station or eNB)may query the UE for capability information (UE Capability Enquiry). TheUE may respond (e.g. through RRC signaling for UE category or UEcapability) indicating that it is a Cat-A device (UE CapabilityInformation). In response, the RRC connection may be reconfigured tosupport Cat-A operation, as signaled in an RRC ConnectionReconfiguration message, with acknowledgment sent to the eNB once theconnection reconfiguration is complete.

FIG. 12 shows a flow diagram illustrating signaling for a Cat-A deviceaccording to some embodiments. During the first phase of device Attach,the Cat-A UE may be identified during the RACH procedure as a Cat-Mdevice, which may operate at a frequency appropriate for a Cat-M device,e.g. at 1.4 MHz. Alternatively, a new, reserved preamble may be definedfor Cat-A devices, and the category [Cat-A] may be identified at thefirst message (@MSG1) during the RACH procedure for the Attachprocedure. This may also lead to a change in the SIB, or the definitionof a new SIB for Cat-A, in which case the eNB may ensure that PUSCH isrestricted to up to a specified number of RB, e.g. 15 RBs, while PUCCHmay be used according to legacy usage. Once the Attach procedure iscomplete and the NW is informed of the Cat-A capability of the UE, allsubsequent RRC Connection Requests may be based on the new Cat-A. Thatis, PUSCH and PUCCH operations may proceed according to the Cat-Arequirements (as previously defined above). For PRACH procedures, eitherthe Cat-M RACH or the new PRACH for Cat-A may be used.

Cat-A Requirements for DL

The DL BW requirements may be different from the UL BW requirements fora Cat-A device.

The link budget may be improved by increasing the BW (more transmitpower @eNB for more RBs). In some embodiments a specified frequency maybe targeted, for example a 10 MHz target may be assumed. In order toachieve a desired [e.g. peak] throughput, e.g. 10 Mbps (in full duplex),in some embodiments a BW of at least a specified frequency, e.g. 3 MHz,may be designated. The modulation may be specified as QPSK, 16QAM, and64QAM (for peak throughput definition).

The DL physical channels (PHY) may be characterized as follows. ThePSS/SSS/MIB may be narrowband channels (e.g. 1.4 MHz) in the center ofthe bandwidth. The PHICH/PCFICH may be narrowband channels that may bebypassed or replaced by EPDCCH/M-PDCCH. The PDSCH may be based on eNBresource assignment. The PDCCH may be a wideband channel (which needs tobe accounted for during narrowband mode of operation). The E-PDCCH maybe a narrowband channel (e.g. 8 PRBs spread across the whole systembandwidth), and may be UE-specific, used in RRC connected mode.

Overall, the DL requirements may be considered different from the ULrequirements, allowing for asymmetry between the UL and the DL BWassignment. UL operation is narrowband, and polar architecture would bea transmit architecture candidate for the transceiver to reduce powerconsumption. During DL operation the main advantage of narrowband isADC, and a possible LOW IF (intermediate frequency) receiver. There maybe a reduced benefit associated with using narrowband in the DLoperation compared to the UL operation. In DL operation, the more RBsare used the more transmit power is required from the eNB. The desiredfrequency band may be thought of in terms of energy efficiency duringthe DL operation (e.g. 10 MHz may be desirable). By way of example, adesired payload may be a payload with a throughput of 5 Mbps (megabitsper second). Cat-M supports 1 Mbps, whereby the transceiver remainsawake operating at a data rate of 1 Mbps over 1.4 MHz. However, using 6RBs at 1.4 MHz over 10 TTIs (transmit time intervals), for example, mayachieve the same throughput as using 12 RBs over five TTIs. In terms ofnetwork usage both scenarios may be considered equal. Referring again tothe example above, the use of 6 RBs over 10 ms may be considered theequivalent of the use of 12 RBs over 5 ms. However, from the perspectiveof energy efficiency, a scenario of 12 RBs over 5 ms may be moredesirable because after 5 ms the transceiver may be switched off,resulting in power savings. For this reason, there may be no need tomeet the bandwidth requirements of Cat-M during DL operations.

PDCCH Replacement for Cat-A

One limitation during DL operations is the control channel, PDCCH.E-PDCCH is UE-specific and is used in RRC connection mode and cannot beused for common channels like paging, SIB, RACH, etc. PDCCH may bereplaced for Cat-A devices according to at least two differentsolutions. In a first solution, the E-PDCCH may be extended to be usedfor idle mode and common channels, SIB/RAR/Paging. This may requiresignificant changes and may impact legacy UEs, especially for SIBs. ForRAR and Paging it may include a definition of new reserved preambles forRACH, and a new UE_ID for paging for this new category (Cat-A) devices.

In a second solution, the M-PDCCH may be reused for RAR/Paging andMTC_SIB may be used (where MTC stands for machine-type communications),while E-PDCCH may be used for UE-specific data or a modified version ofM-PDCCH to support a larger number of RBs (more than 6 RBs of Cat-M). Itshould be noted that MTC_SIB does not require a PDCCH. Consequently, RARand Paging may be operating at a specified frequency (e.g. 1.4 MHz) likea Cat-M device. Before RRC connection reconfiguration is reached,M-PDCCH may be used. Once RRC connection reconfiguration has beenreached, a complete switch to E-PDCCH may take place since E-PDCCH inthe specification is UE specific and used only in RRC connected mode(or, as stated above, a modified version of M-PDCCH). Thus, to useE-PDCCH, a configuration is expected from the network, and thatconfiguration may be received in an RRC connection reconfigurationtransmission.

Furthermore, MTC_SIB may be made to cover all legacy SIBs. Since an MTCdevice may not support mobility, SIB4/5 may most likely not be redefinedfor MTC. Hence for Cat-A, new SIBs 4/5/10/11/12 may be created. SIBs 4and 5 may be for mobility, SIBs 11 and 12 may be for emergency calls asthe new category supports emergency calls. Overall, the new SIBs may becreated to operate without PDCCH, i.e. they may operate without usingPDCCH as MTC_SIB. The PRBs pairs used for E-PDCCH may be restricted tofit a specified bandwidth, which is 10 MHz in some embodiments. Prior toattaching to the NW, the UE may be operating using physical channelsand/or procedures associated with a different category mode, e.g. Cat-Mmode, while the UE may still be identified as a Cat-A device. In otherwords, the UE may not be identified as Cat-M device, but at the sametime the UE may use M-PDCCH and common channels (SIB/RACH/Paging) asdefined for (associated with) Cat-M because M-PDCCH and the abovereferenced common channels support a narrowband mode of operation (1.4MHz). An example code sequence corresponding to E-PDCCH configuration isshown below:

  EPDCCH-SetConfig-r11 ::= SEQUENCE { setConfigId-r11EPDCCH-SetConfigId-r11, transmissionType-r11 ENUMERATED {localised,distributed}, resourceBlockAssignment-r11 SEQUENCE{ numberPRB-Pairs-r11ENUMERATED {n2, n4, n8}, resourceBlockAssignment-r11 BIT STRING(SIZE(4..38)) // This may be restricted to fit in 10 MHz },DL Mode of Operation

Considering the new category (Cat-A), if the benefit of narrowband modeof operation is not justified, then in DL mode the UE may operateaccording to a legacy Cat-1 mode of operation all the while remainingidentified as a Cat-A device. In other words, if there is no need for anarrowband mode of operation in DL, then a Cat-A device may simplyoperate according to certain features, e.g. certain channels and/or modeof operation associated with a different device category, e.g. operateaccording to certain features and procedures associated with a legacyCat-1 device during DL communications/operations. For link budgetenhancement, CE (coverage enhancements) from a different category, e.g.Cat-M may be reused for operation if desired. Overall, Cat-M operationmay be used for all the common channels while UE-specific data may behandled according to Cat-A requirements (for a Cat-A UE). Thus, a Cat-Adevice may also have modes of operation associated with other devicecategories. In some embodiments, a Cat-A device may have Cat-1 and/orCat-M modes of operation, which means that the Cat-A UE may use some PHYchannels and/or procedures that are specific to (associated with) thosedifferent categories. For example, Cat-1 mode of operation means use ofPDCCH, Cat-M mode of operation means use of M-PDCCH and narrowband (1.4MHz) operation. It should be noted that the modes of operation describedabove are also referred to herein as “operating according to a differentdevice category”. For example, when a (Cat-A) UE device is said to beoperating according to Cat-1, it means that the Cat-A UE device usessome channels and/or procedures that are specific to Cat-1, while the UEdevice remains identified as a Cat-A device.

It should be noted that UL communications may always take place in anarrowband mode of operation. For example, during UL operations the UEmay operate in at most (i.e. maximum) a 3 MHz bandwidth. During DLcommunications, the UE may operate in a 10 MHz bandwidth independentlyof the system bandwidth, or the UE may operate in the system bandwidth.Furthermore, in some embodiments, a Cat-A device may always operate inasymmetric bandwidths for UL and DL operations. In other words, in someembodiments, a Cat-A device may operate in a first size bandwidth for DLoperations and a second size bandwidth for UL operations, where thefirst size bandwidth differs from the second size bandwidth.

Consequently, if a narrowband mode of operation in DL is justified bythe architecture, then a Cat-A device may operate in a specified systemband for efficiency, e.g. in 10 MHz for energy efficiency (it should benoted that operating in a 1.4 MHz band has an impact on powerconsumption for heavy DL traffic). For link budget enhancement andcommon channels, a Cat-A UE may operate using features, channels and/orprocedures specific to a Cat-M device (i.e. operate in a 1.4 MHzbandwidth). In a way, during some time periods the UE may be said toswitch from operating as a Cat-A device to operating as a Cat-M device.However, as mentioned above, this doesn't mean that the UE changes itscategory or that the category of the UE is redefined/modified. In someembodiments, this change in mode of operation includes changing the modeof operation for the PHY channels and the system bandwidth. For example,if link budget enhancements are needed, the UE may operate in 1.4 MHzand use the M-PDCCH as a Cat-M device would, but the UE still remains aCat-A device.

FIG. 13 shows an exemplary frequency spectrum diagram illustrating theDL mode of operation of a Cat-A device according to some embodiments.Diagram 1302 illustrates the frequency spectrum when a fixed receivelocal oscillator (Fixed RX LO) is used, and the resulting basebandsignal frequency spectrum is illustrated in diagram 1304. Diagram 1306illustrates the frequency spectrum when an RX LO offset from the centerfrequency is used, and the resulting baseband signal frequency spectrumis illustrated in diagram 1308.

Defining Cat-A in Terms of Cat-1

In some embodiments, Cat-A may be defined in terms of Cat-1 withnarrowband operation in UL/DL. That is, a Cat-A device may be consideredas a Cat-1 device with a single receive (RX) antenna, reuse of Cat-Magreements for common channels (RAR/Paging/SIB) and extensions ifneeded, and use of Cat-M mode (i.e. M-PDCCH, time domain repetitions and1.4 MHz) in idle mode and during attach procedure (e.g. refer to FIG. 6showing overlapping features between various device categories accordingto some embodiments). For UL, if new RACH preambles are introduced inCat-A, the PUCCH may differ, while in Cat-M, PUCCH is restricted to 1.4MHz whereas Cat-A operates according to legacy PUCCH.

As soon as RRC connection reconfiguration is complete, the UE may beoperating as a fully Cat-A device, i.e. it may use E-PDCCH forUE-specific data, and operate in 10 MHz in DL mode, and in 3 MHz in ULmode. For a link budget improvement higher than 5 dB and QoSrequirements that are not sensitive, the UE may switch to a Cat-M modeof operation as previously described (in other words, the UE may remaina Cat-A device while using a mode of operation specific to or associatedwith Cat-M), i.e. operating in a 1.4 MHz band with time domainrepetitions. For a link budget improvement lower than 5 dB, the UE mayswitch to a Cat-1 mode of operation. For QCI1 (e.g. real timeapplications, VoLTE or similar QoS, QoS that are sensitive for e.g. realtime applications)/Heavy DL throughput and regardless of the link budgetimprovement needed (i.e. be it more than 5 dB or less than 5 dB), the UEmay again switch to a Cat-1 mode of operation.

The switch from operating according to a mode of operation associatedwith one category to operating according to a mode of operationassociated with another category may be performed at the eNB through RRCsignaling. The UE may be identified as a Cat-A device, but based on thelink budget, the QoS and/or the throughput/power consumptionrequirements, the eNB may enable the most appropriate (or mostadvantageous) mode of operation (e.g. PHY channels like M-PDCCH, 1.4 MHzmode of operation, E-PDCCH, common channels procedures, etc.) The switchmay be requested by the wireless communication device (e.g. in form ofMAC CE/RRC signaling) or it may be triggered by the NW based onmeasurements available at the NW (e.g. RSRP/CQI/PHR/BSR/BLER, etc.) Itshould also be noted that while there are at least three modes ofoperation of a Cat-A device disclosed herein, operation of Cat-A devicesis not restricted to the examples provided herein. For example, in someembodiments, when certain conditions are met a Cat-A device may operateaccording to procedures and/or use of channels associated with otherdevice categories not specifically mentioned herein, in addition toCat-1 and Cat-M modes of operation. Furthermore, a Cat-A device mayoperate according to the requirements specified for a Cat-A device (seeFIG. 6 for exemplary category requirements for Cat-A) at all times,while under certain conditions—as also previously disclosed herein—thedevice may switch between performing respective operations according tocorresponding procedures and/or use of channels associated withdifferent categories.

FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram illustrating communications between a UEdevice and a cellular base station according to some embodiments. The UEdevice may be identified as belonging to a first device category, whichmay be a new device category (or type) such as Cat-A, for example, asdisclosed above (502). The UE device may communicate with a cellularbase station according to a mode of operation associated with (orspecific to) the first device category (520). If the link budgetrequirement exceeds a specified value (504) and the QoS requirements arenot sensitive, i.e. the QoS requirements don't meet certain criteria(506), the UE may switch to communicating with the cellular base stationaccording to a mode of operation associated with a second devicecategory, e.g. associated with a pre-existing device category such asCat-M in some embodiments (510). If the link budget requirement does notexceed the specified value (504), the UE may switch to communicatingwith the cellular base station according to a mode of operationassociated with a third device category, e.g. associated with anotherpre-existing device category such as Cat-1 in some embodiments (512).Furthermore, if the QoS requirements are sensitive, i.e. they meetcertain criteria, and/or downlink throughput requirements exceed aspecified throughput value (508), the UE may switch to communicatingwith the cellular base station according to the mode of operationassociated with the third device category (512).

Various Embodiments

In some embodiments, a wireless communication device (UE) may performcommunications with a cellular base station according to a mode ofoperation associated with a first UE category, whereby the first UEcategory includes communication parameter values corresponding tocommunication parameters that at least partially define how the UEcommunicates with the cellular base station. The communication parametervalues may define a first maximum transport block size for downlinkcommunications and a second maximum transport block size for uplinkcommunications, where the first maximum transport block size isdifferent from the second maximum transport block size. Thecommunication parameter values may also define a first bandwidth for theuplink communications and a second bandwidth for the downlinkcommunications, where the first bandwidth is different from the secondbandwidth.

In some implementations, the first transport block size is 10000 and thesecond transport block size is 5000. Furthermore, the first bandwidthmay be 1.4 MHz or 3 MHz, and the second bandwidth may be up to one 10MHz or 20 MHz. During communications taking place according to the firstUE category, a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) may be limited toa specified number of resource blocks. In addition, duringcommunications taking place according to the first UE category, aPhysical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) may be a narrowband channellocated around an extreme end of a communications bandwidth of the UE inthe frequency domain.

In some embodiments, an apparatus may include a processing element thatcan cause a wireless communication device (UE) to perform, during afirst period of time, communications with a cellular base stationaccording to a mode of operation associated with a first devicecategory, where the first device category includes a first set ofcommunication parameter values corresponding to communication parametersthat at least partially define how the wireless communication devicecommunicates with the cellular base station. The processing element mayalso cause the UE to perform, during a second period of time,communications with the cellular base station according to a mode ofoperation associated with a second device category, where the seconddevice category includes a second set of communication parameter valuescorresponding to the communication parameters. During the first periodof time, the UE may perform uplink communications and during the secondperiod of time the UE may perform downlink communications.

Furthermore, the processing element may also cause the UE to communicateat least a subset of the first set of communication parameter values tothe cellular base station in response to receiving a wirelesscommunication device capability enquiry from the cellular base station.In addition, the processing element may further cause the UE to receivea reconfiguration message from the cellular base station, where thereconfiguration message instructs the UE to operate according to thefirst device category.

In yet other embodiments, an apparatus may include at least a processingelement that may cause a UE to communicate with a cellular base stationaccording to a first mode of operation associated with a first devicecategory, and to switch to communicating with the cellular base stationaccording to a second mode of operation associated with a second devicecategory in response to a link budget requirement being higher than aspecified value and quality of service (QoS) requirements not beingsensitive. The UE may also switch to communicating with the cellularbase station according to a third mode of operation associated with athird device category in response to the link budget requirement notbeing higher than the specified value or QoS requirements beingsensitive and/or a downlink throughput requirement exceeding a specifiedthroughput value regardless of the link budget requirement. The UEswitching from operating according to the first mode of operation tooperating according to one of the second mode of operation or the thirdmode of operation may be facilitated by the cellular base station inresponse to a control signaling request received from the wirelesscommunication device and/or in response to measurements available at thecellular base station.

FURTHER EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present invention may be realized in any of variousforms. For example, in some embodiments, the present invention may berealized as a computer-implemented method, a computer-readable memorymedium, or a computer system. In other embodiments, the presentinvention may be realized using one or more custom-designed hardwaredevices such as ASICs. In other embodiments, the present invention maybe realized using one or more programmable hardware elements such asFPGAs.

In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium(e.g., a non-transitory memory element) may be configured so that itstores program instructions and/or data, where the program instructions,if executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform amethod, e.g., any of a method embodiments described herein, or, anycombination of the method embodiments described herein, or, any subsetof any of the method embodiments described herein, or, any combinationof such subsets.

In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE) may be configured to includea processor (or a set of processors) and a memory medium (or memoryelement), where the memory medium stores program instructions, where theprocessor is configured to read and execute the program instructionsfrom the memory medium, where the program instructions are executable toimplement any of the various method embodiments described herein (or,any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or, anysubset of any of the method embodiments described herein, or, anycombination of such subsets). The device may be realized in any ofvarious forms.

Although the embodiments above have been described in considerabledetail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent tothose skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated.It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace allsuch variations and modifications.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An apparatus comprising: a processorconfigured to cause a device to: perform random access channel (RACH)communications with a cellular base station according to a procedureassociated with a device of a first device category, wherein theprocedure includes receiving a narrowband downlink physical controlchannel for signaling a random access response and narrowband mode ofoperation; identify the device to the cellular base station as a deviceof a second device category different from the first device categorysubsequent to receiving the narrowband downlink physical controlchannel; and communicate with the cellular base station as the device ofthe second device category at least in response to having identified thedevice to the base station as a device of the second device category,wherein the second device category features one or mare of: a greatermaximum uplink bandwidth than the narrowband mode of operationassociated with the first device category; or a greater maximum downlinkbandwidth than the narrowband mode of operation associated with thefirst device category; wherein the first device category and the seconddevice category share at least one common parameter value that at leastpartially defines how the device communicates with the cellular basestation; and wherein a maximum transport block size restriction of thesecond device category is greater than a maximum transport block sizerestriction of the first device category for unlink and downlink.
 2. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to cause thedevice to: identify the device to the cellular base station as a deviceof the second device category by transmitting device capabilityinformation to the cellular base station.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the processor is configured to cause the device to: receiveradio resource control (RRC) connection reconfiguration information fromthe cellular base station in response to identifying the device to thecellular base station as a device of the second device category.
 4. Theapparatus of claim 3 wherein the processor is configured to cause thedevice to: communicate with the cellular base station according to theone or more parameter values.
 5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein theRRC connection reconfiguration information includes one or moreparameter values of the second device category, wherein the one or moreparameter values at least partially define how the device communicateswith the cellular base station.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thefirst device category is associated with a 1.4 MHz bandwidth and linkbudget limited devices.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein theprocedure is a network attach procedure.
 8. A device comprising: radiocircuitry configured to facilitate wireless communications of thedevice; and a processor coupled to the radio circuitry and configured tointeroperate with the radio circuitry to cause the device to: performrandom access channel (RACH) communications with a cellular base stationaccording to a procedure associated with a device of a first devicecategory, wherein the procedure includes receiving a narrowband downlinkphysical control channel for signaling a random access response andnarrowband mode of operation; identify the device to the cellular basestation as a device of a second device category different from the firstdevice category subsequent to receiving the narrowband downlink physicalcontrol channel; and communicate with the cellular base station as thedevice of the second device category at least in response to havingidentified the device to the base station as a device of the seconddevice category, wherein the second device category features one or moreof: a greater maximum uplink bandwidth than the narrowband mode ofoperation associated with the first device category; or a greatermaximum downlink bandwidth than the narrowband mode of operationassociated with the first device category; wherein the first devicecategory and the second device category share at least one commonparameter value that at least partially defines how the devicecommunicates with the cellular base station; and wherein a maximumtransport block size restriction of the second device category isgreater than a maximum transport block size restriction of the firstdevice category for unlink and downlink.
 9. The device of claim 8,wherein the processor is configured to cause the device to: identify thedevice to the cellular base station as a device of the second devicecategory by transmitting device capability information to the cellularbase station.
 10. The device of claim 8, wherein the processor isconfigured to cause the device to: receive radio resource control (RRC)connection reconfiguration information from the cellular base station inresponse to identifying the device to the cellular base station as adevice of the second device category, wherein the RRC connectionreconfiguration information includes one or more parameter values of thesecond device category, wherein the one or more parameter values atleast partially define how the device communicates with the cellularbase station.
 11. The device of claim 8, wherein the processor isconfigured to cause the device to communicate with the cellular basestation according to the one or more parameter values.
 12. The device ofclaim 8, wherein the first device category is associated with a 1.4 MHzbandwidth and link budget limited devices.
 13. The device of claim 8,wherein the procedure is a network attach procedure.
 14. Anon-transitory memory element storing instructions executable by aprocessor to cause a device to: perform random access channel (RACH)communications with a cellular base station according to a procedureassociated with a device of a first device category, wherein theprocedure includes receiving a narrowband downlink physical controlchannel for signaling a random access response and narrowband mode ofoperation; identify the device to the cellular base station as a deviceof a second device category different from the first device categorysubsequent to receiving the narrowband downlink physical controlchannel; and communicate with the cellular base station as the device ofthe second device category at least in response to having identified thedevice to the base station as a device of the second device category,wherein the second device category features one or more of: a greatermaximum uplink bandwidth than the narrowband mode of operationassociated with the first device category; or a greater maximum downlinkbandwidth than the narrowband mode of operation associated with thefirst device category; wherein the first device category and the seconddevice category share at least one common parameter value that at leastpartially defines how the device communicates with the cellular basestation; and wherein a maximum transport block size restriction of thesecond device category is greater than a maximum transport block sizerestriction of the first device category for unlink and downlink. 15.The non-transitory memory element of claim 14, wherein the instructionsare executable by the processor to cause a device to: identify thedevice to the cellular base station as a device of the second devicecategory by transmitting device capability information to the cellularbase station.
 16. The non-transitory memory element of claim 10, whereinthe instructions are executable by the processor to cause a device to:receive radio resource control (RRC) connection reconfigurationinformation from the cellular base station in response to identifyingthe device to the cellular base station as a device of the second devicecategory.
 17. The non-transitory memory element of claim 16, wherein theinstructions are executable by the processor to cause a device to:communicate with the cellular base station according to the one or moreparameter values.
 18. The non-transitory memory element of claim 16,wherein the RRC connection reconfiguration information includes one ormore parameter values of the second device category, wherein the one ormore parameter values at least partially define how the devicecommunicates with the cellular base station.
 19. The non-transitorymemory element of claim 14, wherein the first device category isassociated with a 1.4 MHz bandwidth and link budget limited devices. 20.The non-transitory memory element of claim 14, wherein the procedure isa network attach procedure.